UPDATED: 16 FOX Stations Won’t Be Showing Chelsea vs Man Utd Live

Sunday’s battle between Chelsea and Manchester United is being promoted in FOX TV commercials as the “Greatest live Premier League match in US television history.” Unfortunately the advertising may irk some soccer fans in the United States who will be unable to watch the game live because their local FOX station has decided to show infomercials, local shows or religious programming instead.

“We hope our affiliates always take network programming, especially live offerings, in-pattern, but the decision rests with them and sometimes depends on local programming obligations,” said a FOX Sports spokesperson. “The good news is that fewer affiliates are delaying this week’s match than on Jan. 22, so we’re moving in the right direction. We feel pretty good that game will be live in over 90% of the country, and delays, wherever they occur, aren’t expected to negatively impact the audience.”

“FOX Sports is committed to EPL, UEFA and the World Cup down the road more so than any other network and will continue look for and find more opportunities to run significant matches on FOX,” added the FOX Sports spokesman. “We’re looking at the glass as better than 90% full, and that’s a big step forward, but we won’t be happy until the glass is filled to the top and we’re 100% live from coast to coast.”

I’m sorry, but it’s absolutely ridiculous that a game, touted as “the greatest live Premier League match in US television history,” won’t even be shown live in many major US cities.

It’s vitally important that you contact your local FOX station and either voice your outrage (if your station isn’t showing the game) or voice your support (if the station is carrying it). Contact your FOX station by Twitter, Facebook, phone, e-mail or via a web-form.

Here’s the contact information for 17 of the FOX stations nationwide. Note that this list is far from complete. If yours isn’t listed, please post the contact information in the comments section below and let me know whether the game is being shown live or not. I’ll update the spreadsheet as I get more information from you, the readers.

Two more important points about this game:

1) I believe that advertising this game as “the greatest live Premier League match in US television history” is misguided. Why does FOX believe it’s going to be the greatest? Based on what? The coverage, or the actual game itself? While I hope it’s an entertaining match, Chelsea currently sits in fourth place, 12 points behind Manchester City and Manchester United who are joint top. Chelsea’s Premier League title race has long been over. If it’s not the game that will be the “greatest live Premier League match,” maybe it’s the coverage? But we have little to base that on other than the inclusion of Rob Stone and Piers Morgan, who both have their attributes but none that would make this game the greatest.

It’s pure over-exaggerated hype. It’s not even close to being the greatest game unless it ends up being a firecracker of a match, which — given Chelsea’s current form — I extremely doubt.

2) It’s time to question whether FOX’s strategy of showing select Premier League games live on the free-to-air network is wise. The jury will be out until the ratings come in for Chelsea against Manchester United, but based on the data we’ve seen so far, the best strategy for FOX would be to show all Premier League 11am ET games live on FOX Soccer in the morning, and then show select Premier League Super Sunday matches on delay in the mid-to-late afternoon hours. The best rating FOX received so far this season was the tape delayed broadcast of Chelsea against Liverpool, which was shown at 2:30pm or 4pm (preceding or following a NFL broadcast, depending on each local market).

Showing Premier League games live on the free-to-air FOX network creates several issues: (1) Local FOX stations have other programming which takes priority, (2) the time of the live game isn’t conducive to the highest ratings possible for Premier League matches, and (3) it infuriates soccer fans who are unable to watch live games in their local markets.

I believe that it’s important that FOX handles you, their core soccer audience, with care. You are the viewers who have been watching Premier League games on FOX Soccer for more than a decade. You are the soccer fans who have helped FOX Soccer grow into what it is today. Without you, FOX Soccer would not exist. FOX is at an important crossroads in their history where they are looking to attract the mainstream audience, which is where the money is at. However, FOX risks upsetting its core audience, i.e. you.

At the end of the day, all we want is to be able to watch Premier League games live. Having them available on tape delay is simply not good enough. In fact, if anything, it creates a situation where tape delayed games will force soccer fans to find illegal means of watching the game live, which is something that none of us want. If I have a choice of seeing a game live on FOX Soccer or seeing it live on FOX, I would have to choose FOX Soccer even though I realize it means that the sport (and league) may not grow as quickly as I would like in this country. It’s vital that soccer fans are not at the mercy of their local FOX station. With FOX Soccer, we can guarantee that if they say they’re going to show the game live, it’ll be on.

Nevertheless, I believe it’s of massive importance that each of you who live in the United States contacts your local FOX station and either thanks them for showing Sunday’s game live, or issues a complaint if they’re not showing it live. There’s no excuse why these stations should be showing the game on delay. And it’s important that they know that there is a vocal soccer audience out there who demands the best possible live viewing experience. Anything else is unacceptable.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

This is only the second game that fox is actually showing live, the others have all been on delay after they were on fox soccer in the morning. I hope you get the future ones live there raise hell with fox.

I don’t even understand WHY they use that stupid tag line! What? Are some casual sports fans checking out FOX Soccer and thinking “WOW! I GOTTA watch this game!!”? Not only are they blatantly lying, they’re doing it for seemingly no good marketing reason.

I thought the same thing about their advertising. It is frankly, offensive to other Premier League teams to advertise a match between the second and fourth place teams as the greatest match ever. These are not the greatest squads these teams have ever had and they are not both in the greatest form.

There are other legitimate ways to advertise, but as with all things FOX…they feel the need to get in your face and make you understand how awesome they think they are.

My FOX affiliate is showing the match live (Minneapolis) – but after what they did to the Champions League final last year, I will never, ever, ever, ever forgive them, no matter how many matches they show live.

I just contacted the Cleveland Fox affiliate to express my disappointment. They’ve gotten so much feedback that it will, in addition to airing on delay at noon on Fox 8, air LIVE on their Over-The-Air Substation Fox 8.2.
(Which my particular doesn’t carry… time to find those HD Bunny ears…)

But they’ve confirmed for me, the game is LIVE IN CLEVELAND on FOX 8.2

IMO this is the way to address this – show the local affiliates that people care about seeing these games. Excellent point that many (not all, but many) stations now have other feed options in this new digital world w the subchannels.

As a fan who can’t afford Fox Soccer, leaving me doomed to bad quality web streams that are sometimes in a different language, I applaud Fox for airing matches. But I agree, I think they should air them on tape delay. I watched Chelsea vs. Liverpool and managed to not get on Facebook or ESPN earlier in the day and see the result (I’m a CFC supporter). They’ll get more viewers in the afternoon when church is over and most Americans are accustomed to watching a sporting event.

WZDX in Huntsville, AL is not showing the game live. The game will be shown on a 2 or 3 hour delay. There is no way they’d preempt the broadcasts of the local church services. I bet this is the case for most Fox stations in AL, GA, and MS.

I live in Indianapolis and since the super bowl is here they decided to show an all day access of downtown and everything about the super bowl. I sent an email about my outrage of them not showing it and I did get a response back from two people. The game will be on the sister station here live. So technically it is not fox, but I’m at least happy I get to watch it live unlike the last game they showed.

I think it’s more a matter of them not updating their TV schedule yet. Looks like they are going to show it live, so I’ve removed them from the list at the top of the article, and I’ve updated the spreadsheet accordingly.

They should be able to handle the bandwidth very easily for that. But, at the same time, FOX may not want to do something like that because it would upset the FOX stations who are showing it on delay (fewer viewers).

Those of you in San Francisco/San Jose/Oakland: the match will be on KICU-DT 36.1 a.k.a. “TV 36” a.k.a. “Action 36 Cable 6”.

COX Television owns both KTVU-DT 2.1 a.k.a. “FOX 2” and KICU-DT.

Local news on KTVU make way too much money to be pre-empted for soccer.

The affiliates in general are NOT happy with FOX (read: David Hill.) Not only will the affiliates lose 1 minute of advertising inventory per hour during the match (affiliates will get 2 minutes instead of the usual 3 minutes,) many affiliates will be stuck with the unsold inventory because local advertisers in many parts of the country have no interest in advertising during soccer matches.

I live in an odd area being so close to NYC directv gives me FOX NY in SD but WTIC out of Hartford is HD. I don’t understand why they aren’t showing the game live. They are showing Wild About Animals at 10:30 am which they showed after the Arsenal vs ManU match last time why not do the same thing again. The only thing I can think of is they think they will get better ratings for the match at noon than at 11am which is mind boggling.

I’m curious to see what these stations (who are not broadcasting live) will air: Super Bowl pre-game show ? Politics-related talk shows ?

I would question Fox’s marketing dept who’s in charge of promoting this match. The hype is not even funny and extremely close to insulting. For football/soccer fans, you don’t need to tag the game as “The greatest…” – heck, an average soccer fan would know that this is a big game but calling it the greatest is ridiculous.

The 1st point in this article is valid… 2nd vs 4th place mid-season English soccer match /= (combine those symbols) interesting television to the average american viewers. I think everyone needs to take a step back and reevaluate the benchmarks for success for the popularity of soccer in the states. Slow organic growth is OK. Fox is NOT the soccer Jesus. The MLS is gradually gaining momentum. Just let it happen y’all.

I emailed the vp of kptm in omaha, his response was that legally they have to air the infomercials,etc. Tough sh*t and if u don’t like it we will choose to not air it at all(in so many words) . I hope the big wigs at fox are monitoring their affiliates blatant disregard for their viewers requests. Btw, is the superbowl live or on a tape delay?

I’m actually shocked that most of you don’t know how “religious programming” typically works. The majority of the time, the church pays for the air time well in advanced. If you’re Fox, are you going to screw over a local church because your “big brother” decided to show soccer on Sunday morning all of a sudden? Of course not. Same goes for any infomercial. I’ve seen this first hand (I’ve worked in for a local NBC station behind the scenes in the past)

Here’s how I see it…

1. If Fox continues to show Sunday games, many of these affiliates will begin to broadcast the games live and not sell the space as many of them do.

2. Fox will wise up and choose to air a SATURDAY GAME instead. I doubt this one will happen though, because it makes too much sense.

Sad to see WTIC in Hartford delay the game when they showed the Liverpool-Manchester United game live last week. Maybe because this week’s game is on Sunday and last week’s game was on Saturday. Still bummed and have sent them an email. When my kids want to watch an animal show, which is what WTIC is showing at 10:30, they watch the Animal channel.

I heard back from FOX CT and this is the response I got, “I am sorry but shows like Wild Animals and the other shows in that time period this Sunday are considered educational & informational shows which are federally mandated to run in a consistent time period by the FCC. We are allowed very minimal preempts in a quarter and as you said, we preempted those shows recently and cannot risk a fine or jeopardize our broadcast license by preempting them again. We agree that it is not an ideal situation to air the game at 12pm and wish it was not something we had to do.”

Somehow I imagine that if it was a college football game or another American sport, they would find a way to air those games live instead of animal programming. Sounds like a lame excuse to me to try to deflect the real reason why they aren’t showing it.

Hit them up on Facebook and Twitter too so other soccer fans in the area can realize what’s going on.

I’m having a hard time mustering enough outrage to contact Fox 6 in Milwaukee about this. I can remember the dark ages of soccer on TV in the US, when “supporting” Chelsea for me in the 90’s meant checking two-week-old scores in Kicker magazine at the bookstore and never actually seeing my players play or even knowing what most of them looked like. So I am still feeling extremely grateful to ESPN and FOX for what they’ve accomplished in the last 5 years or regarding Euro soccer. The good news for US soccer fans is that the sport is still enough in the shadows that one can watch a game delayed several hours (or even days, as I often do with the dvr for several EPL and Serie A games each week), while easily avoiding knowing the outcome. I watch almost all television (including sports) on delay these days and have for several years now, as the commercial breaks render most sports unwatchable as live events anyway, so this is not a problem for me.

Good job Gaffer in helping getting the news out. We may be brushing up against the economics of American network tv. The local stations make a good piece of change from the local programming on Sunday mornings. It may not be in there $$$$$ to run the live broadcast as much as we know that the sporting public may want to see the games live on the network.

When your talking about taking off a religious broadcast that becomes an even bigger issue. We all know how large of an influence religious groups has on politics in America. The biggest issue in the future from having a live network game on a Sunday morning may be come a religious one! BTW, I consider myself a good Catholic even if I do not get church every Sunday.

Shocking that the “Greatest live Premier League match in US television history” won’t be shown live in some areas, mine included. I hope more people complain and talk about this outrage or else this will happen all too often in the future.

Yes, gaffer, I agree that foxsoccer.tv should give a free pass to people living in areas where it won’t be shown live. Actually, I wouldn’t even mind if foxsoccer.tv showed it to paid subscribers only since I have a paid subscription. Of course if they wanted to attract more subscribers then giving people a free day-pass would help them.

Gaffer, have you written to Fox about this? Wouldn’t be bad idea to do so.

I don’t know why foxsoccer.tv doesn’t show it as well at least for their subscribers sake. It is not as if it would be competing with Fox TV since anyone who has access to both will watch it on TV. For people like me who cannot watch it on TV because my local Fox affiliate isn’t showing it at least I’d be able to watch it on foxsoccer.tv. Foxsoccer.tv does show games at the same time it’s airing on FS+. So I don’t see why they cannot show Sunday’s game live as well. Come on Fox, do the right thing for your loyal soccer subscribers.

I hope people are aware that the match is also being shown on Fox Deportes live at 11AM. My local Fox affiliate isn’t showing the match live but on delay at noon. But I do have Fox Deportes SD not HD so at least I’ll be able to watch it live. I don’t understand Spanish but it seems that sometimes their commentary is better than those on FS with the American commenatators who are so boring and uninformed 🙂 .

New Haven/Hartford is one of the top ten TV markets in the country and guess what FOX CT covers all of CT with only some of southwestern CT getting FOX NY as well as FOX CT depending on your cable provider and your city or town.

The Fox affiliate in Memphis WILL be showing the ManU-Chelsea game live on Sunday. Listed below is contact info for that station should us soccer fans feel obliged to write/call the station and thank them for their wise decision:

Here is my brief response from the programming director at KPTM in Omaha. They will not be changing their mind.. and claim its down to legal obligations. Over the years I have paid for Setanta, ITVN, online streaming, foxsoccer.tv, fox soccer channel, fox soccer channel plus, espn2hd, goltv, espn deportes… all in the hopes to legally and reliably watch my passion. and now.. for the first time it is on a free channel.. i cant. my hometown has let me down.

“Jeff Miller: Hi Todd-I completely understand your frustration for the tape delayed airing of the EPL games. However, the dilemma of the scheduling conflict is more of a legal matter rather than a programming-choice.

As FOX Sports is scheduling these EPL games outside of the contractually agreed upon affiliation agreement, it creates a conflict with other programming that we are also legally contracted to air (such as the religious programming you referred to in your email).

When FOX schedules a program that contradicts other scheduled and legally binding contracts, the station’s only option is to either A) not air the programming or B) tape delay the programming. This stations choice has been and will remain to air the programming in a tape delayed format and our partners at FOX Sports are in agreement.

I understand this is not the answer you seek, however, it is the best possible choice given the contractual obligations involved”

Thanks for sharing that dkptiger. My question to the readers (and to KPTM) is why then is 90%+ of the FOX stations showing the game live? Wouldn’t they have the same types of early Sunday morning programming that typically runs each week that they’re legally binded to showing? Why is it that only ~17 of the stations nationwide are doing this?

Also why have other FOX stations who were going to show religious programming and infomercials on Sunday changed their mind this week after public pressure, and are showing the game live instead? The “legal matter” sounds like it’s a convenient excuse.

Ok one more question, I promise. But why isn’t FOX communicating with their viewers to let them know which stations are and are not showing Chelsea vs Man Utd on Sunday? Why do readers have to come here to get that news (not that I mind, but you get the point)?

as for some affiliates relating tchange of heart Ai dont think its excuses, Maybe you think that he station managers talked to the people responsible for the church or informercials in making a exception? you never know. I think its insulting to think that a affiliate would make such a excuse or some socld say that out of fustration that they didnt see it live. more likely they dont understand or refuse to think that Fox Network Hq is just as accountable.

Yes I posed some of those questions back to him but have not received a response. the Fact that days before the match he essentially said they were not considering changing their minds made it clear to me. I think when execs say the term “legal” they think that makes us just accept it as a reality. like the speed limit or paying taxes… im sure they have a contract to air the ah bra infomercial on sunday. but if there were a need, they would be able to overcome that. it just shows a disrespect to soccer and its fans. here is how i finished it to him:

“Thank you for the explanation. I can only wonder how the other affiliates around the country overcame this legal struggle. I do appreciate your answer, but you are correct about my displeasure; Fox is attempting to make this the most important live game by putting it on the free-to-air channel, but we cannot take part. I am certain Fox Sports is not in agreement with that since they spent quite a bit of money to secure the rights to the live match. While they do agree in the affiliates right to take it or leave it, I presume they would want you to show it live. There is no question that if it were Creighton basketball or Husker football, suddenly these legal barriers would find a way of working out. I have no choice but to urge Fox to not try and show the games on the ‘free’ channel, and instead keep them on the premium Fox Soccer channel that I pay extra for, just to ensure it is given the proper respect to be shown live. Again, thank you for the explanation.”

Good evening WTIC FOX CT,
I am writing on behalf of tomorrow, Sunday Feburary 5th, 2012’s television schedule. As you might be aware, a landmark soccer game dubbed by your own FOX network “(the) Greatest LIVE Premier League Match in US Television History” is set for a kick-off time of 11:00am EST. However, I couldn’t help but notice the game will be shown locally at 12:00pm EST. I also understand WTIC’s choice to run a delayed showing was based on “…local programming obligations.” – (FOX Sports) but it is just baffling that such a game hyped as a historic event for the sport of soccer in the US would be put aside regardless of what local show is taking its place. FOX Sports has taken a noble task recently to help bring popularity to the sport of soccer; just months ago it purchased the rights to the 2018 and 2022 FIFA World Cups and has started to show English Premier League games on the local affiliates. This clearly demonstrates a strong support to which I admire. Yet, the blocking of LIVE broadcasts of these games sends a mixed message that damages both FOX Sports’ and the sport itself in the US. Loyal soccer fans as me are always content on watching great games on the premium channel FOX Soccer as it is a reliable source that shows one of the best coverage of the top games of the week. FOX’s decision to move big games to local networks is not a problem as long as the games are shown LIVE; if not, these loyal fans will get frustrated and resort to other means to watch them. Truly, all we want is to watch the weekend’s Premier League matches live, as normally shown on FOX Soccer. Although millions of Connecticut residents are most likely waiting with baited breath for the new “Animal Atlas” and “Pet.TV”, just imagine the outrage delaying the NFC Championship game a measly hour would cause and try to treat “(the) Greatest LIVE Premier League Match in US Television History” with an proportional level of respect.
Sincerely,
Tyler

I contacted my local Fox channel WSVN in Miami Florida and expressed my displeasure of them not showing the match on the main Fox Channel. Instead, we are given the second class citizen treatment of showing the game on ch. 7.2- Comcast channel 220. What a shame! I could understand the small markets deciding not to show it, but Miami, Fl? Come on! That’s either a biased decision or simply stupid of them WSVN executives. Oh well! I’ll remember to get my news, weather and entertainment from other networks in the future.

This Fox Soccer advert about live Man-utd match vs Chelsea is so sick. Shame on them. Its a fat cry that they can advertise a live match yet they broadcast the delayed play. For the heavens sake, someone tell them that we already know the results, so they are just but wasting their time. They should even change the title of the channel to “Infomercials” station. %$#*&*^@#!#^&(*&^#

First of all, none of these markets are major markets…We have to be extremely satisfied that LIVE SOCCER is going to be seen over 90% of the country. Next year, FOX will give it’s local affiliates more time to adjust. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one more LIVE game on FOX (ManCity vs. ManU on April 28th…as long as the dates don’t change).

Next year, we will probably see 4-5 games live of FOX (with some replays during the NFL Season). By next year, we should be close to 100%…

I am sorry but the shows in that time period on Sunday are considered educational & informational shows which are federally mandated to run in a consistent time period by the FCC. We are allowed very minimal preempts in a quarter and we preempted those shows recently in order to air the last soccer match live a couple of weeks ago. We cannot risk a fine or jeopardize our broadcast license by preempting them again this quarter. We agree that it is not an ideal situation to air the game at 12pm and wish it was not something we had to do.